Proof of progress

If you look at the short-row ribbed scarf you can clearly see my progress in knitting skills. The early sections have the odd hole or two (yet to be repaired) and a few obviously mis-sized ribs while the newest sections are almost neat enough to have been done by a machine.

Last night I came to an essential decision-making moment on my scarf as I came towards the end of my third ball of yarn - how long was I going to make this scarf?

I hate too short scarves - they look skimpy and cheap as though you just want to save money by not buying an extra ball of yarn (this does not apply to people responsible for the care of toddlers who are capable of proving a 2 year old can strangle a grown adult to death if they pull hard enough on a scarf wrapped around the adults neck. But I do not have children.) But I've also come to the conclusion after the last two scarves that four-ball scarves are probably a bit on the long side even for me. So it looks like I'll be making this a 3 1/2 ball scarf - probably around 240 cm once it is blocked. Enough to hang down a decent distance even when wrapped around the neck but not so long that I will trip over it.

Yes, I used the word 'I'. I think I may be keeping this one also. I like the pattern too much to give to someone who isn't super special to me. And the colours, although not what I would have initially chosen for myself, seem to go OK. It's about $40 worth of yarn plus god-knows how many hours so it really is the equivalent of a $200 designer scarf. So why shouldn't I be selfish and keep it for me?

In other news, the DLB hat has gone down well with the baby's aunt, which is the main idea. She thinks it may be a bit big for him right now, but I'm cool with that. It means it should fit him perfectly around winter. I don't know how much wear he'd get out of it in our Indian summer.

I also bought another set of Addi DPSs to start swatching the Opal 6-ply for my Knitting Olympics sock challenge. 2 days until kick-off. WTF was I thinking??? I signed up to get Interweave Knits direct from the US (even with postage it will be about 30 percent cheaper than getting it in the shops in Australia - when I can) which also gave me access to their online stuff, including a sock pattern which in theory is suitable for all gauges and sizes.

Here's hoping!